Open thread, live video [fixed]: Can Issa connect the dots in IRS hearing today?

posted at 10:41 am on July 18, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

According to Carl Cameron’s report of a conversation he had with Darrell Issa yesterday, today’s hearing in the House Oversight Committee will connect the dots in the IRS scandal all the way to the White House. That’s hardly a great strategy in setting expectations — unless Issa really knows he can deliver on that promise. Starting at 11 am, we’ll soon find out (via Common Cents and Gateway Pundit):

The star of today’s show will almost certainly be Carter Hull. When his name first popped up, it seemed that Hull might have been at the BOLO nexus, and possibly the key to the scandal. His testimony in depositions didn’t disappoint, either. Instead of being a driver of the effort, Hull told investigators that he had been placed in the “demeaning” position of having his approval authority stripped on Tea Party cases, which went to Washington and the IRS chief counsel’s office rather than concluded positively for the applicants, as he would have determined.

Expect Issa and Republicans to spend a lot of time with Hull, drawing him out on those points, and with Elizabeth Hofacre as well. She has been a gold mine of information on the lower-level operations, and will likely serve to rebut Democrats’ attempts to show equivalence between treatment of conservatives and progressives in the tax-exempt unit. That will balance out the efforts of Democrats on Oversight to pillory J. Russell George for not providing them that equivalence in the first place.

The fireworks should be spectacular today, with the hearing shifting from a veneer of bipartisanship earlier this summer to a full-fledged partisan battle to control the IRS scandal narrative now. We have the live-embed code from Oversight here, but just in case, here’s their page for today’s hearing. We’ll have the open thread here and add posts on newsworthy moments as the day progresses.

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I understand your concern – but states cannot print their own money. The lefties are running out of money – pure and simple – and as Obama chases more of the economy underground, DC will become broker and broker.

I am not suggesting it will not be without more pain. But eventually the adults – which is not a GOP synonym by the way – will have to clean it up because this admin and any other future ones like it do not have the ability to keep it going.

It will be awesome – and Verb and Seps will absolutely hate it, because their victimology won’t have any place to sit. You will notice their posts are all snark and puff – no facts. They are holding a losing hand – just a matter of when it all falls apart on them. Keep the faith.

Whatever, but that is not going to help at all. If you include every wrong done by the government since it’s founding you will get nowhere, and why we will continue to go down this Communist path.
Not accepting the will of the people between “before the civil war” to now is not helping fix anything, it just makes you and us all sound as dumb as the people who want reparations for slavery.
And why the Republican Party can’t ever do anything productive ever again. You tie the hands of us all.
Your attitude is like a flag of surrender.
petunia on July 18, 2013 at 3:18 PM

None of this stuff is helping fix anything. Issa is doing nothing but give the left the opportunity to play mind games.
Am I dumb when I point out the history of the path to Hell this country has taken?
Dear dear petunia, you sound foolish to ME when you think somehow that Issa is going to get anything accomplished with these worthless hearings. This very thing happened with McCarthy & the left did the VERY SAME things (obfuscate, twist truths, lie, cheat, etc) then.
I’m putting my efforts toward the 10th Amendment. It is the only hope. The Fed has taken far too many UnConstitutional liberties & the SCOUTS has legislated from the bench with its emanating prenumbras & BS for decades.
Nullification by individual states is the only way to turn the tide.
Your call for abolishing the IRS does nothing.
It will not happen.
The states must rebel on their own.
They must take their own sovereignty back instead of caving into the empty threats of the Fed.
I mentioned the Civil War bcs what happened to cause it has some parallels to this day.
Slavery was only a very tiny part of why Lincoln did what he did. And he only used it to get his way.
The Union is not meant to be permanent.
Resolutions of defiance are nothing new.
They in reality are NECESSARY. They are a state’s assertion of the power they hold as told in the Constitution.
This is where my efforts go. Local. In my state.
Federal influence of the people is GONE.
And your moaning about these hearings is a waste of your time.
Notice:

I haven’t watched, but have only read some comments here. Please tell me Issa didn’t get drug down into the weeds for a comment about a little boy with his hand in a cookie jar. Please say that didn’t really happen. Because if the word “boy” is now racist, then I think we should just throw in the towel. Are we now left saying “males and girls?”
Oink on July 18, 2013 at 3:09 PM

This is how the left ends up making an argument.
Which of course is no argument, petunia. You cannot think any of these pathetic hearings will ever do a damned thing.

I am not suggesting it will not be without more pain. But eventually the adults – which is not a GOP synonym by the way – will have to clean it up because this admin and any other future ones like it do not have the ability to keep it going.

It will be awesome – and Verb and Seps will absolutely hate it, because their victimology won’t have any place to sit. You will notice their posts are all snark and puff – no facts. They are holding a losing hand – just a matter of when it all falls apart on them. Keep the faith.

Zomcon JEM on July 18, 2013 at 4:00 PM

Reagan, the great man he was, could not stop the insanity.
He helped cause communism to weaken in Europe. But that’s about it.
Much as I love & respect the man, what he did was not much, except of course the people of Poland adore him. And of course those E. Germans.
But did he make a lasting impression upon the economy?
No. Bcs the states are still Federal Whores. They are still letting the Fed tell them what they can do.
And that is not how the rules state things.
The Fed is specifically told what it can & most importantly, CANNOT do.
There will be no Conservative hero that can fix any of this.
The work must be done through individual state resolutions & straight out nullifications of Federal overreaching.
Am I talking seceding? No. Not necessarily.
That really should be a last desperate resort.
But it can never be off the table.
States have their sovereignty. But they haven’t been fighting very hard to keep it.
And that is the fault of the people of those states.

“As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron.”
— H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

Finally over. Cummings last rant was an epic, chest-thumping destruction of big bad straw men, culminating in an appeal to the Almighty.

He is a contemptible tool. The Dems are obviously terrified of where this investigation is going. With the exception of Lynch, they spent the majority of their time attacking the IG, Issa & the Republicans. The rest of it they just wasted, intentionally.

“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. … What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
– TJ

TJ would crap his pants if he could see what has happened.
If those men were able to visit the present Congress, I have no doubt they would beat the living $hit out of each & every one of them with a stick.
Then tar & feather them.
And that is before they incite rebellion.

But then they were men from a different time. When violence was not always frowned upon, depending upon the circumstances.
They grew up in an age of greater brutality.
We are so very lucky of the times we live in.

Nice try tool. You’ve been trying to throw wateer on this all aftyernoon. Won’t work any better than Cummings’ rants. Or maybe you are that little boy…cookies…jar.

Talk radio has picked this up. Hull to Lerner to William Wilkins…the latter an Obama appointee, chief counsel (Rev Wright’s attorney, too) and a Chicago thuggie of BO’s. Read about it. This does matter and you can tell by the Dems’ reactions and yours.

Nice try tool. You’ve been trying to throw wateer on this all aftyernoon. Won’t work any better than Cummings’ rants. Or maybe you are that little boy…cookies…jar.

Talk radio has picked this up. Hull to Lerner to William Wilkins…the latter an Obama appointee, chief counsel (Rev Wright’s attorney, too) and a Chicago thuggie of BO’s. Read about it. This does matter and you can tell by the Dems’ reactions and yours.

gracie on July 18, 2013 at 5:42 PM

Well gracie you B!TCH you can kindly GFY. I mean that with the sweetest sincerity I can put behind it.
I do not consider these endemic problems I’ve talking about here today rants.
I have never said that any of this crap is RIGHT. Most assuredly Issa might, and obviously HAS, found much wrongdoing.
But we are putting a lot of effort into this as a people & we somehow are thinking this is going to actually result in real action.
As a tool, the modern slang definition indicates you somehow think I am being used somehow.
I would pose that everyone who is sooo upset about all of this info coming out & getting so wound up about the fact that the liberals are lying through their teeth are nothing but tools for playing this game with them.
It’s akin to a kindergarten shouting match btwn adults.
What do you think is going to come out of any findings here?
I have watched hearings like this on CSPAN over the years, as well as Congressional Q&A for appointees, and none of anything I have ever seen was worthwhile.
It’s an opportunity for a dog & pony show.
Meanwhile the left plays word games & head games using their politically correct charged speech & even Issa seems to have played right into it by apologizing for using the phrase little boys. Is that true? Did he do that? Other posters here say he did.
THAT is exaclty what I am referring to when I say n othing will come of this.
At best, Issa is an idealist trying to play an honest game with liars & thieves. And he will not win.
If you think that me trying to get you guys to put your moaning & hysterics aside & put your outrage elsewhere into a more useful venue is throwing water on your party, so be it.
My opinion is people are wasting their efforts on this crap.
When confronted about the little boys quip, Issa should have told them to STFU as loudly & obscenely as possible and moved on.
By apologizing he sported his mewling weakness & his willingness to be liked by the azzhats.
It’s really f#cking laughable that you think I’m the tool here.

Nice try tool. You’ve been trying to throw wateer on this all aftyernoon. Won’t work any better than Cummings’ rants. Or maybe you are that little boy…cookies…jar.

Talk radio has picked this up. Hull to Lerner to William Wilkins…the latter an Obama appointee, chief counsel (Rev Wright’s attorney, too) and a Chicago thuggie of BO’s. Read about it. This does matter and you can tell by the Dems’ reactions and yours.

gracie on July 18, 2013 at 5:42 PM

Well gracie you sanctimonius tw@t, you can kindly flip off. I mean that with the sweetest sincerity I can put behind it.
I do not consider these endemic problems I’ve talking about here today rants.
I have never said that any of this crap is RIGHT. Most assuredly Issa might, and obviously HAS, found much wrongdoing.
But we are putting a lot of effort into this as a people & we somehow are thinking this is going to actually result in real action.
As a tool, the modern slang definition indicates you somehow think I am being used somehow.
I would pose that everyone who is sooo upset about all of this info coming out & getting so wound up about the fact that the liberals are lying through their teeth are nothing but tools for playing this game with them.
It’s akin to a kindergarten shouting match btwn adults.
What do you think is going to come out of any findings here?
I have watched hearings like this on CSPAN over the years, as well as Congressional Q&A for appointees, and none of anything I have ever seen was worthwhile.
It’s an opportunity for a dog & pony show.
Meanwhile the left plays word games & head games using their politically correct charged speech & even Issa seems to have played right into it by apologizing for using the phrase little boys. Is that true? Did he do that? Other posters here say he did.
THAT is exaclty what I am referring to when I say n othing will come of this.
At best, Issa is an idealist trying to play an honest game with liars & thieves. And he will not win.
If you think that me trying to get you guys to put your moaning & hysterics aside & put your outrage elsewhere into a more useful venue is throwing water on your party, so be it.
My opinion is people are wasting their efforts on this crap.
When confronted about the little boys quip, Issa should have told them to STFU as loudly & obscenely as possible and moved on.
By apologizing he sported his mewling weakness & his willingness to be liked by the azzhats.
It’s really fracking laughable that you think I’m the tool here.

And this is priceless.
Do you think I am some kind of liberal? Have you not been paying attention at all?
Why do you think the world is saved bcs talk radio has picked this up & some flunky connected to the left is now magically on the side of what is right?

No gracie. You’re the genius here. Despite various hearings in the past that a quite similar to this, and given the track record of the right doing nothing, or next to nothing, about flagrant ethical violations, downright illegalities, or watching UnConstitutional power grabs happen under their watch & their very noses, somehow this is going to be something!
Bcs talk radio has picked up on it.

Bcs after all, history never repeats itself & when they get some more evidence of the liberals lying through their teeth oh boy are they in for it!

I want these ba$tard$ to pay for their IRS with hunt.
But this hearing(s) will do nothing of the sort.
This is giving the Democrats a STAGE to misrepresent the facts & use it to their advantage.
Something else needs to be done.
Only real criminal prosecutions by local attorneys, State attorneys, etc are going to do anything.
Like with the voter fraud.
Congressional hearings are a bunch of liars repeating their lies & the fools who listen to them & act all shocked bcs they have the audacity to lie to Congress.

What does it matter? No one will be held accountable even if someone can prove Obama murdered people with his own hands in cold blood.
This stuff is just a waste of time. History proves it.

Badger40 on July 18, 2013 at 5:27 PM

Start emphasizing the POSITIVE and maybe that will change people to do good.
You’ll notice it is some Thomas Jefferson himself did. He always strove to emphasize the positive, even though things were circling the drain.
Take a tip from a brilliant founding father & pull your head out of the dark place of doom & CHOOSE to be a little less pessimistic.
I can only surmise life with you must be one depressing day after another.
Sheez.

Badger40 on August 14, 2012 at 7:16 PM

Fascinating. In less than a year, you’ve become what you whined about.

Your current quote is absolutely right on the money, please keep the realistic version of current events as your paradigm. It will serve you so much better.

I understand – and don’t necessarily disagree with you. But Issa has now formally connected a dot into the WH – someone there will eventually have to take a fall – I have no illusions about its ability to harm the president unless some gift from heaven falls to us. But to my point – we are broke, and the systems are too big to continue to milk the system to keep everyone paid and quiet.

It’s like Detroit and the pensioners and unions filing suit – go ahead, but it doesn’t matter what a judge says, there is no money to pay the bill – none.

And that is why I am optimistic. Verb can only make jokes on this thread because he realizes he has nothing to say – nothing. Its dying, just a matter of how long and painful it will be. nothing Verb, Seps or their savior Obama can do to stop this. Let’s applaud Issa for continue the slow tedious task of making the IRS look like a bunch of nazis. See if this drip, drip, drip can flip the Senate. Then guess what? No more stalls in the Senate. In the meantime we need to work on saving our states and cities by ourselves and work to extract our finances from DC.

The time has come – I am excited about it – and feel we will be able to leave our grandkids and kids a better place than what we found.